Servers in the fog

Server in the fog...

Cloud computing is the direction most successful software firms are heading today, it is the future of technology, when instead of buying servers and hardware, one day enterprise clients will have the tools to utilize all their tools through an Internet browser. Browser being the window to the enterprise cloud offered by so many companies today.. Amazon, Microsoft offer hosting your files, your documents remotely on their clouds. Companies giving access to their programs and your personal directories, like mail archives, server backups in the remote clouds on the other side of the country.. The tendency is that the hard disk sizes on the computers sold in few years will not increase, and that the external hard drives sales will decrease in the years to come, letting the way to the cloud. Like these days Ipad2 is advertised as fashion accessory in glossy magazines, one would foresee Amazon file hosting as the next "Hot thing of the season" in Vogue September  2014 issue.

Cloud is the new buzz word, the sexy term everybody is using... Recently I worked on a project of transferring files from backups from one cloud, through multiple filters breaking the file into into chucks for simultaneous streaming through the second cloud to finally transferred to a third cloud. As crazy as it sounds it is no much different than working on multiple physical servers in one room, but instead of local IP addresses using IP gateways to the Great Cloud. With all its adverseness and modernity, cloud has some disadvantages. The downside is when poetically speaking the clouds disappear in the fog, in more technical terms, the trouble comes whenever your Internet connection is drifting. Because of the weather, or overload, or your Internet provider failing to supply decent service, the Internet goes down.. and so does all your information... That did sound a bit too pessimistic, your information is still on the remote cloud, behind the lakes and the mountains, just the fog and the distance do not allow you to see it. 

More people will start using better Internet connection packages both in the US and worldwide, and mobile coverage with data plans will improve allowing to tether and use your wifi connections with the phone. Since the beginning days of the operating systems such as Windows, there have been ill-wishers, hackers, and with the rise of the Internet the interest in the information theft has only increased. More minds are committed into finding efficient ways to find your social security number, credit card number and bank account number being transferred over the network, by click of the wrong button, and submission to wrong URL. This will rise with the cloud obsession.

With one of the most reliable companies in the world Sony PlayStation network being hacked and unrecoverable for over next two months, this is the time to deeply analyze which clouds you are going to trust. There is no guarantee, whatsoever that this information, your privacy on Google or Facebook will not be once in the hands of those ill-wishers, but before submitting all your information to some anonymous cloud, before shopping for the best price it is the time to carefully consider how much do you trust the website you are about to share some personal details with, and how much do you believe in the security of that cloud, that it will not soon be hacked and your life stolen.

Not to sound paranoid with the technological advancements, we all are target of attacks, and research (note Google is not always synonymous for the world research) is the key of finding the trustworthiness of your connection medium, of your cloud and of your fog.